


Boston Layover

by elsewherewolf



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: M/M, Pure Unadulterated Fluff, So Sweet It'll Rot Your Teeth, everyone lives! AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-07
Updated: 2014-07-07
Packaged: 2018-02-07 21:52:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1915146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elsewherewolf/pseuds/elsewherewolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Herc's considering the future, in the New England Aquarium.  I had a request for a Boston layover, everyone survives AU.  This schmoopy fluff is what happened.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Boston Layover

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DT Maxwell (Draya)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Draya/gifts).



"Boston?" Raleigh asks, still looking out of the window at the clouds just beneath them. 

"It's just a day, something to do with scheduling and flight availability. A minor detour."

"Minor? We're the other side of the country from where we want to be. What, they couldn't rustle up a few seats on a direct flight for the heroes of the hour?"

Herc shrugs, turning the page of a magazine he hasn't really been reading for the last twenty minutes. "Thought you'd appreciate the break from the public."

"Oh, _that's_ what this is about? You think my hand's getting tired?"

"Heroes of the hour, Raleigh. The world wants to know every single thought going through each of our heads, might as well grin and get used to it for the duration of this tour."

"This tour of the Pacific Rim, which is somehow taking us to Boston," Raleigh mutters.

"You've got something against the place?"

"No, I just... This cuts into our overnight, doesn't it?"

Herc smiles, closing the magazine and tapping his finger on the front cover. A picture of Raleigh and Mako, flanked by Chuck and Stacker. There's still a small stab of regret, looking at the four of them. It should have been him, down there with his son. A familiar presence, the warmth of shared memory, not the blank slate Stacker would have given him.

"Herc?"

"We'll just have to make the most of the day."

+

"Would you please just listen to the doctors on this one? We're home in ten days, it's going well. A few militant anti-Jaeger lobbyists, but they don't have a lot to say once we remind them there _are_ no Jaegers any more. That their precious walls crumbled in less time than it took us to take out the breach, and that they're free to start rebuilding without the fear hanging over their heads that something's going to come out of the ocean and knock it all down again before they've even finished... yes, I'm done."

Raleigh comes back with two styrofoam cups, steam curling up from the small holes in the lids, and watches him.

"I mean it, Chuck. Rest up, get your legs back under you. You're going to need them, we'll want you and Stacker on the second leg of this tour. I know, I hate it too... Yeah, he's here right now."

Raleigh tilts his head, looking anywhere but at Herc.

"Okay, I'm hanging up. Just... do as they bloody well tell you, son. Yes, bye." Herc ends the call, pockets his phone and takes one of the cups from Raleigh's hand.

"Chuck okay?" Raleigh asks.

"He's bored. Stacker's okay, he's got plenty to keep himself busy - PPDC delegates, press interviews, the committee for the repurposing of the Shatterdome. Observation and Prevention or something, I don't know. Stopped paying attention at some point. What were we...?"

"Chuck," Raleigh prompts, rolling the cup in his hands to try and warm them. Boston in the spring isn't exactly warm.

"He's fine. Told me to take care of you."

"Oh, really? In what way?" Raleigh's grinning now, looking a little smug that Herc's squirming.

"You know what way. I think he's just still pissed that he never knew. Where's Mako?"

"Inside, where it's warm. You know she's smarter than the both of us, right?" 

Herc nods, finally taking the lid off his coffee to blow on it. "I quite like it out here in the cold. With you."

"I really wanted that overnight in L.A, you know. In a bed, not an airplane seat."

"Well, when we get there, how about I rent us a room for the afternoon?"

Raleigh's shoulders drop a little, and he shifts his cup to one hand, strokes Herc's coat collar with the other. "By the hour, huh? Sounds seedy."

"Yeah," Herc sighs.

"I don't care. I just want to be with you. We haven't had any time to ourselves. Not to... you know."

Herc steps a little closer to Raleigh, bending to kiss the top of his jaw. His voice is low and warm in Raleigh's ear. "Sweetheart, if you're _that_ damn horny, we'll go find a room right now. Flight's not for another ten hours, Mako'd probably prefer it if we left her alone a while."

Raleigh flushes, closing his eyes at the nuzzle Herc gives his cheek. "God, I love you."

"Is that a yes?"

"I'll wait 'til we get to L.A."

"You're a goddamn tease."

"You knew that already." Raleigh nods towards the aquarium, sips at his coffee. "Let's go find Mako. Take your mind off your blue balls."

+

"Look, there she is!" Mako points, hurrying off to a different window for a better view.

"I think she's enjoying seeing the good stuff the sea has in it," Raleigh says at Herc's bemused look. "And Myrtle's a superstar."

"You want to go get an autograph too?"

"I'm happy where I am." 

"Yeah, I'm happy where you are too. Sorry, that was..."

"A little." Raleigh smiles, squeezing Herc's hand briefly. "Where to, after this?"

"No idea. Although it's something I want to talk about."

"Well, it's Boston. We have plenty of-"

"Not what I meant. Here." Herc goes ahead to a bench with a penguin perched on one end. Pats the space next to him, and Raleigh sits, watching people. Herc takes hold of his hand, thumb rubbing over his knuckles. "When the tour's over and done with. When they've decided what they're going to do with the Shatterdome, what's your plan?"

"Never really thought about it. You?"

"I want to go back to Aus, actually. Someplace out of Sydney's shadow, but... I miss it. Was hoping you'd come with me." Herc picks at his pants, flicking some imagined piece of fluff off them. "Get a house together, somewhere quiet. Maybe still near the coast so's I can teach your pasty American arse how to surf properly."

"Summer in Alaska, Summer in Australia?"

"Alaska has summers?" Herc grins, taking the hard nudge Raleigh gives him. "Are you serious?"

"Deadly."

"You want to take on that kind of commitment?"

"You'll like Alaska. I can teach you how to fish. And I'm sure I'd love Australia."

"Hmm." Herc looks around, still idly stroking Raleigh's hand. "Might as well get hitched while we're on the subject."

"Oh, fuck no. No, you're not getting away with that shit." Raleigh lowers his voice as a couple of kids pass by. "You ask properly, or not at all."

There's a look of surprise mixed with terror mixed with god-knows-what, when Herc gets up and immediately goes down on one knee in front of him.

"So... You want to?"


End file.
